Scandal Limits Bakker’s World to ‘the Size of a Postage Stamp’

Media attention since religious broadcaster Jim Bakker’s resignation as head of the PTL ministry as the result of a 1980 sexual encounter has shrunk his world to “the size of a postage stamp,” Bakker told a newspaper reporter here.

Bakker, a native of Muskegon, telephoned the Muskegon Chronicle on Sunday from Southern California and talked for more than half an hour about his family’s life since he confessed to a one-night affair with a church secretary in Florida.

Bakker has been in seclusion with his wife, Tammy Faye, in Palm Springs home since his March 19 resignation as president and chairman of PTL, which stands for “Praise the Lord” and “People That Love.”

“Do you know they’re taking pictures of us with telephoto lenses now?” Bakker asked. “They’re getting on the tops of buildings a half-block away and trying to get our pictures. This is a Spanish-style house, and there are no drapes on the windows.

“They can see in every window except a little corner in our living room and the bedroom,” he added. “Our world has dropped down to the size of a postage stamp.”

Children Devastated

He declined to give details of events leading to his resignation, the newspaper said.

Bakker said that the experience has been devastating for his children, 17-year-old Tammy Sue and 11-year-old Jamie Charles. “Our lives are totally destroyed. All we have left is our faith in God,” Bakker said.

He said he has stopped watching TV news reports and reading the newspapers since other television evangelists have referred to him as a “cancer” in the ministry and “junk.”

“I guess it’s a free-for-all time right now,” he said. “I can understand the media doing it; that’s their job. But I’m so surprised by people in the ministry. . .to hear such hatred directed toward me,” said Bakker, 47.

He said he has received hundreds of letters supporting him and his wife, who shared the PTL’s “Jim and Tammy Show” with him.

In the interview, Bakker apologized to his backers and to God. “I am so very, very sorry,” Bakker repeated. “I am so very sorry this happened. I ask God to forgive me every hour of every day.”

Wife ‘So Steady’

He added that his wife, who is being treated for drug dependency, is doing well. “Tam is able to hold up so steady through this--no nasal spray, no Allerests, no Valium, which was just running her life.”

Bakker called his brief encounter with Jessica Hahn “a stupid thing. I made a terrible mistake.”

Meanwhile, the four-man executive committee of the Assemblies of God’s North Carolina District executive presbytery met Monday to plan a meeting of the full 16-member church body that is seeking to question the Rev. Richard Dortch.

Dortch, who succeeded Bakker as PTL president, reportedly played a key role in the payment of $265,000 to Hahn and her representative, Paul Roper of Anaheim, that was meant to avert a Hahn lawsuit over her sexual liaison with Bakker. Dortch was executive vice president of PTL under Bakker.